This piece is a translation of the original French version that first appeared in Le Monde.
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) concluded in Washington, DC on February 22, 2025. Gathered to celebrate their victory in the November election, key figures of the Trump administration—all confirmed by Congress—appeared alongside the president and prominent members of his MAGA movement. In just the first month since the inauguration on January 20, Trumpism has shaken America and redrawn the boundaries of the international landscape.
CPAC has become the embodiment of the MAGA spirit. The event hosted dozens of podcasters who played a major role in Trump’s media success among the American masses. Booths ranged from political initiatives to business ventures, with a special focus on the world of cryptocurrency—one of Trump’s key investment interests as a businessman. The conference also attracted numerous foreign representatives: Hungarians from Viktor Orbán’s government, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (virtually), Argentine President Javier Milei, Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the Patriots for Europe Foundation (the think tank of the European parliamentary group led by Jordan Bardella), Brexit champion Nigel Farage, and others.
And, of course, there were the unmistakable symbols of MAGA folklore: Trump’s campaign bus covered in thousands of supportive messages, men and women draped in American flags, dressed as the Statue of Liberty or the Founding Fathers, the famous red caps, and an entire array of glittering clothes, pins, jewelry, and trinkets bearing the name of their hero.
Yet beyond the carnival-like atmosphere, politics was at the forefront. On the first day alone, the three major faces of Trumpism took the stage before thousands of electrified supporters: Vice President J.D. Vance, who represents intellectual, polished Trumpism; Elon Musk, Trump’s advisor embodying libertarian Trumpism—focused on dismantling the state, its regulations, and social spending; and Steve Bannon, representing the militant, nationalist, and religious Trumpism, willing to resort to violence to achieve political goals.
J.D. Vance: Trumpism’s Intellectual Face
In just a few months, J.D. Vance has emerged as the key figure of governing Trumpism, built on a strong ideological foundation—a reinvention of popularconservatism. His public image is deeply tied to his working-class origins, and his largely autobiographical book, Hillbilly Elegy, has become a reference for those who celebrate the return of America’s “proletarian right.”
Intellectually, Vance has been shaped by two major currents fueling the MAGA movement: post-liberal/illiberal thinkers (such as Patrick Deneen and Sohrab Ahmari) who argue that liberalism has failed, and technofuturism, particularly transhumanism (the idea of an ‘enhanced humanity’ through AI and machines) and the Dark Enlightenment theories represented by figures like Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin—to which should be added the Trumpian touch of “America First” and a very transactional vision of the world order.
During his speech, Vance reveled in the political shockwave caused by his Munich speech drawing loud cheers from the audience who delighted in mocking the European Union. He boasted about the administration’s successes achieved in just one month, delivering a clear message: the Trump administration has four years to prove that a conservative worldview can bring prosperity and stability, in contrast to the liberal elites who, according to him, are driving Western civilization toward ruin.
Elon Musk: Trumpism’s Libertarian Face
Following Vance’s speech, and several others from key administration figures, the crowd’s excitement reached new heights when Elon Musk was announced as a surprise visitor. At that moment, politics and pop culture fused together: the room erupted as the billionaire-celebrity took the stage, and the atmosphere reached a fever pitch when Argentine President Javier Milei suddenly appeared, wielding a chainsaw, which he presented to Musk—a scene straight out of American professional wrestling, complete with theatrical spectacle.
Musk struggled to articulate a structured speech and seemed unable to provide precise figures regarding DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency he oversees, whose goal is to “shrink the bureaucratic mammoth,” borrowing the phrase from French politician Claude Allègre. But that hardly mattered. His persona—Dark MAGA, dressed in black, physically uneasy, punctuating his speech with awkward laughter and internet meme references—did not need intellectual coherence. The message was clear and repeated throughout his speech: the Trump administration will slash federal spending, which ballooned under Obama and Biden, and redistribute the savings to the American people.
Musk’s role at CPAC was centered around DOGE, so the audience did not hear much from him about X (formerly Twitter) or his support for far-right movements in Europe. His vision of deregulating the economy and downsizing the state aligns with the libertarian faction of Trumpism. But Musk also taps into the deep cultural myths of American identity. He represents the new generation of America’s industrial titans—the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Carnegies, and J.P. Morgans—and his sci-fi technological utopias reinforce the traditional American celebration of productivism and optimism. In doing so, he embodies both anti-state libertarianism and technofuturism as a national project, restoring America’s foundational myths.
Steve Bannon: Trumpism’s Nationalist Face
One might have expected the energy in the room to subside after Musk’s performance, but then came Steve Bannon, a speaker of exceptional rhetorical skill. Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News, a key platform of the Alt-Right steeped in fascist and New Right references, and Trump’s former White House strategist, is now revered as a political martyr, having spent four months in prison for his refusal to respond to a Congressional subpoena related to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
His speech was vastly different from Musk’s. Delivered in the style of American televangelists, it was highly controlled, filled with religious and mystical references, and framed Donald Trump as a providential leader sent to save the American people. Bannon spent much of his speech celebrating the release of the J6ers—the January 6 rioters—whom Trump pardoned on his first day in office, His rhetoric was filled with military terminology—defeat, victory, never surrender, reload your rifle, return to battle—and punctuated by the iconic Trumpist chant: “fight, fight, fight,” which has become synonymous with Trump’s clenched-fist salute following the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. The speech concluded with a brief but unmistakable fascist salute, followed by more conventional military salutes met with thunderous applause.
Vance, Musk, Bannon… Three faces of the MAGA ideology—classic conservatism and “America First,” libertarianism and technofuturism, national-populist, fascist-inspired radicalism. Three different versions of Trumpism—each blending respectability, extremism, and pop culture, united by their allegiance to a single leader in a postmodern mix that disrupts traditional political norms.
Although tensions exist (Bannon and Musk openly despise each other), these stylistic differences should not obscure the unity of their political project. The illiberal revolution is underway, and its accelerationist philosophy—believing that speed is the key to transforming institutions—leaves little doubt: the old world is dead, and opponents of Trumpism must now reinvent themselves in a radically new context.
Marlene Laruelle is Research Professor of International Affairs and Political Science and Director of the Illiberalism Studies Program at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Laruelle works on the rise of populist and illiberal movements in post-Soviet Eurasia, Europe and the US. She is the former Director of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES) and of the Central Asia Program (CAP).
Photo by John Chrobak. Made using “Steve Bannon – 53069526838” by Gage Skidmore licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0; “J. D. Vance (54346912465)” by Gage Skidmore licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0; “Abstract grunge background” by dotstudio on Freepik
